Joe brought up a question I was too tired to answer before he asked it. So here are my thoughts now that I'm awake:

Well thankfully, there was a CoX comic, so I have a decent idea how to RP it with some balance. Part of it is simply that CoX always gave the impression levels were just game mechanics and that IC side, there is no such thing as "level". Even though we, as level 20-somethings, can kick the butt of anything in Atlas Park, I'm aiming for a more comic approach where we are ALL the same level and have balanced powers, but higher level in the game means new ways to use your powers there and here. Example:

Angel is level 17 and just hits 18 in the game. This means she can now summon a medic on top of her useful idiot and cannon fodder guys. It also means she gets shadowfall now.

In RP, this means she recently got the resources to get a new recruit among the mercanaries and discovered that among her dark powers, she can twist them in a way as to cause the area around her to become darker. She always had the potential to do this, but only recently discovered it.

When you think about it, this makes sense too. In the game, you can "skip" a power until later that you could have learned right then and there. So while one hero might discover they can clap their hands to topple enemies at an early stage in their career, another might learn how to fly first and then later the clapping. Joe can never learn the clap because of axe, but everyone can eventually learn "YAY!!! I can FLY!!!" ....it all depends on what was fun for you in the game. It doesn't take 2 brain cells to figure out IC reasons for powers. So... no levels as far as how powerful you are. Simply that your hero or villain discovers new venues of their power.

On another note, levels DID have an in-game quality. For Villains, threat level. For Heroes, security level. If that isn't a big "duh", I can explain the RP aspects there too, but I think you guys have caught on to my train of thoughts by now. :)

I can see why you'd want to use such an IC system that does away with the "why cant I even TOUCH a minion from founders falls where I can totally cream a boss in Atlas?" confusion...  BUT.  In game AND in the comics, power level is very important to the plot.  If a villain were to get in a 1 on 1 with any of the cannon chars early in their carreer, they'd get creamed.  The goal of the game, (and the aspiration of no-name heroes in the comic) is to reach the point where you can challenge the cannon chars.

I say keep true to game mechanics, quirky though they may be, and simply explain it away with "that's the way things work in this world... trying to say something?"  However, if we decide to do away with level-ness, there exists a game mechanic where this happens.  Giant Monsters and Rikti Invasions.  When up against a Giant monster or a Rikti invasion, the same boss that's red to a lvl 11 will be red to a lvl 50.  The diff is that the lvl 50 will have more enhancements and powers available to them, making the lvl 50 up to 2-3 times more effective in the fight against the GM than the lvl 11 hero instead of 32billion times more effective.

Why keep to level-ness?  I'd like for experience as a hero to mean a lot.  Experienced heroes should be loads stronger than new ones in my mind.  Of course my love of this concept is part of the reason I consider RP the icing on my CoH cake, but meh...  If we end up tossing power levels, I can get my "I can cream that guy waaay easier today than last week" fix in game and just "oh well" about that joy in RP.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:47, Sat 26 July 2008.

Well it's not like we don't know who is what level, so we'll go with this for now and see how it plays out.

For the sake of NOT argument, here's the discussion we had ironing things out...


[09:21] Timothius: And yeah... rikti invasions were the nail in the coffin that had me convinced everyone was supposed to be the same level
[09:22] Mittens 8D: didn't know if u were aware of the GM / rikti thing.
[09:23] Timothius: I'm aware of rikti invasions. And all rikti are the same level to anyone
[09:24] Mittens 8D: and yet not so in any other case.  like when in missions or in the rikti war zone.  in the war zone you'd get creamed by one of their monkeys.
[09:25] Timothius: Trust me... bringing levels and I'm more powerful than you into an RP setting is asking for trouble. But since it's just us, we can give it a shot
[09:25] Mittens 8D: well yeah i wasn't expecting you to invite strangers.
[09:26] Timothius: Not unless they play CoX. I doubt any of the others in our guild are RPers
[09:26] Mittens 8D: i was just thinking of "otherwise why the heck not aggro much more powerful *computer* foes I.C.?"
[09:27] Mittens 8D: i could put out the invitation
[09:27] Mittens 8D: oh... and i think keeping true to level also prevents low levels from claiming they can do more than they should
[09:28] Mittens 8D: yeah and pooty tang is awesome too
[09:28] Timothius: That's true.
[09:28] Timothius: And l
[09:28] Timothius: Bet you didn't know the 101 after science was leet speak for LOL
[09:28] Mittens 8D: lol!
[09:30] Timothius: Another problem with bringing levels is that Mittens is going to be the only player in the RP who can do much of anything. You are level 50 for goodness sake. And the rest of us (Me especially) won't catch up for a looong time
[09:31] Timothius: It's like "Oh no! We're in trouble! Let's call for headmaster Mittens!" Mittens leaves, comes back as lvl 50 tens. Danger over.
[09:31] Mittens 8D: "do much of anything" i disagree.  "has the golden ticket to enter forbidden zones" i agree.  if joe had the golden ticket i'd take him to the rikti zone rather than paragrin island.
[09:32] Mittens 8D: and yes.  that's what i do in-game IF asked to.  "would you rather this be fun or should i get my 50 and bulldoze 'em?"
[09:33] Mittens 8D: it's another case of "why don't those powerful heroes that train you step in and sweep the floor with the baddies creaming you in front of their faces."
[09:33] Timothius: So you want this to be a world where heroes are heroic not because it's dangerous but because it's fun and there is no danger involved? Because psychologically speaking, RP-wise if anyone were in the shoes of those heroes, they would say "Yes! Bulldoze these freaks! They are hurting innocent people!"
[09:33] Mittens 8D: it's simple.  it'd spoil the plot.
[09:34] Mittens 8D: if we want 2 apply logic to it, heroes would band together in groups larger than 8 and clean the city in a day.
[09:35] Timothius: Here's what we'll do to excuse it...
[09:36] Timothius: Tens saves lvl 50 for bigger problems. Like Superman saving some of his strength for in case something huge comes up
[09:36] Mittens 8D: my thinking is that 'cause we're not playing with outsiders, just roll with the sillyness of game mechanics rather than just try and do a work-around or we'll wind up in the same oofish place over barakians and blissians.
[09:37] Mittens 8D: and yes it's very mittens to want a challenge more than victory
[09:37] Mittens 8D: otherwise why ever exemp?  why bother with other "jobs?"

This message was deleted by the player at 22:56, Sat 26 July 2008.

  And by the same amusing side of things for ‘longer time spent as a hero means better’, all those ancient demons and semi deities for BG sorts getting destroyed by beginning of game Hobos just as hard as the plotwise newbs with Double Arrow style.

  Poking at the mechanics of ‘reality’ was probably going to be a gag concept with me anyways.  Joe might wonder when Natural human meant shrugging bullets and killing military robots with common everyday items from day one, and Metal Mettle might wonder why nobody uses the invulnerable civilians as shielding instead of hostages.
  And I see Mittens is showcasing the joys of furniture arrangement quirks.

  I’m not too worried how things will go through the wonders of ‘Tim is Sane’.  But it was something to wonder about.

  Besides, when your power set is ‘stab things with an axe, and as hard to kill as Jason’ for the most part, how ‘level’ affects you is even more vague.

  El Edit: Chronic Alt-itis as a game mechanic.  Can't say they didn't work for it though, heh.  And glad you're having fun with the pic aspect.  I was also surprised to find a helpful help section for once.  (Yet another reason I like this place)
This message was last edited by the player at 05:22, Sun 27 July 2008.

LMAO!  You're hillarious, Joe!  I'm so glad we decided to keep to game mechanics!  XD

  Yes,  Joe is what happens when entry level mission NPC’s get tired of waiting.  Shame he lost the complete invulnerability in exchange for being able to kill arrest the hell out of things.

  Besides, if being Nigh Invulnerable works for The Tick, it should be good enough for any hero.

Hey Joe... if you're not posting Villain side, then I'll go ahead and post in soon. But so far, I've been waitin' on you. :)

Meep, post away -.-;

 Diff name to pretend I’m not double postin.  While getting amusement and some posting guidelines from the game mechanics will work out, the SK/Exemplar bits among other things seem like the sort of thing that could, if done in the complete proper way, lead to annoyance.

  Such as the joys of not having someone else handy to SK a lower level person.  Case in point, having ‘someone’ SK Dre...  What someone?

 Of course, it’s not like this would be abusive in any way here if we sidestepped the issue.  As a LV 50 person SKing an entire team wouldn't result in mass power leveling.

I was thinking of NPCs named "Powerman5k" or "Hell Oh Kitty" or whatever.  Didn't name 'em just in case Dre wanted to.

And in the spirit of keeping to game mechanics, should they not be alts of ours since teaming up with one of your alts is literally impossible? Or can we overlook that particular detail?

  Err...


  Yeah.  I think we've already run over that particular detail with a truck.

My bad. :p Totally take alts for granted... as seen by my previous statement.

  *Eyes his last post*  A bit of an interesting situation for Mettle.  As by BBoard timing, he'd have spontaneously developed teleportation abilities in the 30 seconds between his offer and however Animus responds.

  Oh, now I know why I didn't think this came updated in a bit.  It did but I accidentally removed it from my sticky list without noticing.

  I are SMARTZ.

rawr. Keeping the place from deletion and wondering what to do plotwise.

  Well, it's pretty official that this game has become just the three of us (and the other player jumped ship while we were still actively posting regardless).  So doing practically what we feel like is doable, if very nonspecific.  And admittedly a game where any huge delays in posts is just from one of us is an attractive concept to me at the moment (I keep having to remind myself that I'm not doing anything wrong in those games where I haven't posted in a month or more <.<  >.> ) on top of my personal interest in CoX hitting another rise again.

  One amusing and keeping with the apparent theme of 'can't escape the game mechanics' that turned up (well, except freestyle complete powerset changing on mittens end, Mettle causing paper mishes [the Mish AE didn't exist when I did that], etc..) for the huge post delay, and any changes in 'plot' or how we do things we opt for would be 'wow that was a big patch'.

  Plotwise I'm hazy.  The random paper mish Mittens grabbed doesn't quite count as plot.  But possibly something along the lines of the 'we're heroes with Morals damnit... except we don't say damnit either'  thing.

  Villain end of things you actually left open some potential on the 'get revenge for the Raccoon, if only because we have nothing better to do' angle(<- I typoed that as 'Angel' three times).

-> Edit: Wow, this board has been up over a year, and this char has the biggest single post count of... 21 posts Previously tied with Mittens until this OOC.
  And I may or may not be 'wait, what just happened?' swapping in Eletor on Hero side (wheee not being capable of running alts in same location at once plus altitis <.< )

-> Further Edit: When all else fails, remember that there's dimension hopping (time travel is something I don't even wanna touch beyond character backstory)
This message was last edited by the player at 06:00, Tue 10 Nov 2009.

  So yeah.  While the in game Message of the day still says it's over, and the front-page of the game site still says it's over, and the official huge announcement section of the forum Winter event Post still says it's over...

  Deeply buried post says Winter event was indeed extended.  Pardon me while I make funeral arrangements for my CoX enthusiasohsweetcrapit'sazombieandgotmylegs.

  *returns with bloody pick axe* Right. I'll be logging in to hand over Violent's 50 canes if you touch Redside again, None of my Heroes have any canes.  While event item suggests it could go in racks, way too many canes probably to fit.  Then I'll flee from the CoX MMO scene for a little while.  Yes, even after the Winter Event is over.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:29, Tue 05 Jan 2010.

I'll be sad to see you go, but happy to know you will be having fun on WoW. Especially happy if I can arrange logging onto WoW for a time to level with you and your bro. Though when that happens (At this point, I'm determined to try), do you and said bro prefer to powerlevel Chris and I? Or start from level 1 as a group of 4 toons and just level up together whenever all 4 of us are on?

  Oh, in this case the nebulous 'little while' would be two weeks+day from now.  As for the WoW, I have played it a grand total of two times (guess one of the reasons for that ;P).  Or maybe even just 'winter event's over, I'm back' length. heh.

  First time me and my brother were stuck in trial mode, so we just hung out around eachother murdering the wildlife and dealing with the first 'collect twenty bear asses' quests.
  Second time, I was lv 7 and they had since hit lv 11ish.  We did team up, but I could see a detail of CoX I will always prefer over WoW unless we were failing to notice any Sidekick like mechanics that actually are available.

  Bro is currently about to hit lv 19.  They figure on sticking with a single guy for a good long while before makin another one.  Though he's up for trying to team anyways.
  I'll probably stick with my Rouge for the most part (I'm exactly lv 9 now! and I forgot to buy my lv 8 upgrades until I hit 9 <.<) but I'm probably good for trying out a new character while im still clueless in the game...

  Though 'different races start in different areas with new chars/how do you reasonably team together with wildly different levels' is still something I have no clue how to deal with in WoW.

  Oh, duh.  Server we're on is Garrosh

As I read that, I couldn't help but think "And when it comes to lasers, Katy and Annie will lose the competition." Then I had an a-ha moment. If there is an epic pool that allows lasers or something close (like Mu Lightning or such), that's what Katy will take for sure, showing she's just that good at fire power.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Mace_Mastery

  The Black Mantis Mace pool gives you the Spider Tac-ops Mace with it's mace lasers gig, and some of the gadgets like web grenade for some, and Dominators get freakin Personal Force Field off it. As well as the ability to summon varying grades of the Arachnos spider mechs (unless you're mastermind)

  I'd like to think the mentions of Hypo-Tail caused a certain section of these patch notes.  Closed Beta testing started March 2, so like... as of a few hours ago?



  And looks like Tim will be seein those Villain Epic classes someday... And I'll see the squids and not bother to play em?

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Issue_17

  They are also gonna be altering the Positron Taskforce some, having you need to go all the way to Faultline for the last mish including some new villain the Ish is supposed to introduce.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Tue 02 Mar 2010.

*Can't say this word due to New Year's Resolution*!!!

That is TOO cool! This must be new news, considering I checked on Issue 17 just last month and didn't see the whole tail thing. WoW!

The D: chalked onto RG is one of the best things I have seen on a forum post.

Was getting ready to post when I noticed it's Chris' turn. Have fun, Chris.

Still you're turn, Chris. Can't say I didn't inform you. But this game is on perma-slow-motion. :p

  Posting it here cause hey, CoX results, CoX Board.

  Telekinesis power.... Bleeeeeeeh.  Why so?  Not the crazy End cost, an autohit 3.5 Mag hold Toggles is worth such endurance.  No, it's because of its 'repel' effect.  It doesn't stop.  Ever.  And -KB doesn't work on -repel (even if MC holds did cause -kb).  So you are spending a pile of End to Hold someone, and have them float away from you and the team, aggroing everything they go past.

  Yeeesh.

I have experience with this power. When I first used it, I got barked at from all sides. Kalinka was pissed, Chris was pissed, "UGG! Stop using that power! You're pushing the enemy away and pulling extra aggro!" and I was about to just never use it again. But then I found its use: Pinning. Yes, it's auto-hit. Yes, it pushes them back. Yes, missions tend to have nice corners perfect for pushing a whole group into.

You don't use it out in open spaces with no end (wall) in sight. So it's like Super Strength's clap power in that it is slightly situational. And I do mean slightly. Considering what it does and it's recharge time, I wound up using it almost every encounter.

Happy ending. Hope you have just as happy of an ending.

The forcefield powerset has one like it and it's funny as heck to watch enemies try and approach only to be blown back.  IF you're a ranged attacker.  If you're a melee guy, it's annoying.

  Joe meant 'didn't say one rumor' in the 'yeah, you're right you meant more' sense <.<  >.>  but still good point from Angel.

XD

My apologies for taking it the wrong way, but you can see how. It looked like "No, you didn't just say what you just said" heh. XD Sorry. YeahI'mawesome! *runs away*

  Supposedly 'Over 60 new costumes and patterns' (less impressive number when you consider how much will just be patterns, even less so if they count each 'same' pattern on a different part as one of the 60) and a 'beast run' travel power.  (Which I assume is Ninja Run equivalent, only using that on all fours scamper style running).  Auras (whatever those are). Stuffs.  Today's patch is fixing some issues with this (not yet on sale) pack.  Seems an expected release date is tomorrow.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=252201

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFpofz4RLWo&hd=1

  On the thread, someone screencapped a shot of the white leopard lady and went 'wait... Zipper? These aren't animals they're people in fur suits'.
  Had they used a second later (and other people point it out later) as an example, they could have pointed out she's wearing leopard print PANTS XD.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:38, Wed 23 Feb 2011.

  In other news, Today (Thursday) was a 'test run' at Virtue server.  While I'm not working, Thusrday has become one of my 'quiet' days.  (No prior specified regularly occurring RL [like Sun/Wed], I don't crank up SMT [like tues/wed/fri], etc).

  My expectations for 'Why, even if it was filled with nothing but sane people I could never do MMO based RP' were accurate.  Get up, eat something.  Incidental RL.
  Bro asks if I want to play some MvC3 (I do, and why say 'no screw you' to them anyways?).
  Turn on CoX intent on quietly grabbing raptor pack solo before delving into things (only needed one radio+bank to do).  Get ironic request to play CoX with you guys (You guys>random attempts at random).
  RP mentioned. Hell Yes.  Multitask during Text based RP to do things such as, make posts for yet more text based RP (whee :D). Also, take that entire time to chain AFK through two missions to get raptor pack (yaaay jetpacks).
  Field some question response to Brainstorm for once in a millenia. Look at clock now that it's just me.  See it's 2 AM... and I still need to eat something more.  And I still need to do the dishes.

  So yes.  What was my initial expectation for why I couldn't do MMO based RP?
  It is the fact my life is not completely empty outside of MMOs is why (and even when it comes to MMO's, current wider internet scope friends > other stuff).  Oh boo hoo, even only accounting for the household and some internet acquaintances there's plenty of 'goof off with friends' access.

  Also, I'm Waaaay to much of a Multitasking bastich when it comes to computer entertainment anyways. ;D

  Anyways, SCIENCE!
This message was last edited by the player at 07:19, Fri 25 Feb 2011.

Sounds very familiar.  Like, "story of my life" familiar.  And that's me with my list of friends that can be counted on 1 hand.  Tim has it a bazillion times worse with his list that would take both hands and both sets of toes.

In a very weird turn of events, it is Chris' turn on Villains and Will's turn on Heroes. O.o I'm not holding this place up for once!

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Null_the_Gull

I figured you would both appreciate this latest addition to the Pocket D establishment that game with the latest huge patch.

  Also, they cut Mastermind Upgrade endurance costs in half, Whooo!

Nuuuuull!  He only lasted a day, so no wonder I never saw him before.  But now he's back!  Yay!

*Logs on to go worship*

  Removing this game from my sticky list until it's consistently more active than one post every month or two.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:51, Sat 24 Sept 2011.

  Well, I guess it's back on Sticky list.  If only for a relevant place to talk about the actual MMO

  Relevant Incarnate Links.
  http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Incarnate_System
  http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Incarnate_Vendor
  http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Incarnate_Component

  The actual enhancement lists themselves are link buried a bit, if you click a link to 'Alpha/Interface/Etc Slot', if leads to a general overview of what that kind of Incarnate type does.   But a link to 'X Slot Abilities', leads to the actual enhancement list.


This made me cry.  Because even the most Durp of Trial play would get you an uncommon in a few hours.  Three wins at any trial is a basically guarantee of being able to make a common ANY incarnate enhancement (allowing your willingness to downgrade anything you got better than common salvage lower, or spending astrals to get threads)  However, not blaming Chris either because back in the day, Shards style was the only way and only alpha slots existed.  And way back, Tim filled out alpha via abusing holiday events.

  The things Shards style crafting are capable of.
  A)  Making your Alpha slots the whole way.
  B)  Making a Very Rare for ANY slot.
  C)  You can deliberately gun for the Shards style  parts you need, by beating the specific Taskforces that grant them. (Example, Imperious TF has a reward option of Ancient Nictus Fragment for Incarnates.  Beat a Weekly target TF for a Notice Of the Well.  Shards Style, the VR Alpha Alloy Archmage has would use an Ancient Nictus Fragment[Can also be made with 4 shards],  Infused Nictus Fragment [needs Ancient Nictus Fragment +8 Shards]  And a Favor Of The Well [Needs Two Notice Of The Well + 32 Fragments].

  Only use shard style crafting for B.  Why?  Because Threads style (Trial based) is a billion times easier and faster.  Rares Threads Style salvage is also semi reasonable to create if the RNG hates you (8 EMP merits), while if the RNG REALLY hates you, VR Thread style salvage takes 30.

  Threads style:  When you run incarnate trials, enemies have a chance to drop incarnate threads.  Also, you get some threads for accomplishing things in them.  Also Also, they are the baby prize for if you were SO bad, you don't even rank a common rewards Table.  20 Threads = One Common Incarnate Salvahe. 60 Threads = Uncommon.  From there it gets ridiculous if you try to craft a rare salvage or VR salvage out of anything other than EMPs.

  Enhancement Crafting Pattern:
  Thread type Common:  Three Commons.
  Uncommon:  Two commons, one uncommon. 1 Common Enhancement from same tree.
  Rare:  Two Commons, One Rare. 1 Uncommon Enhancement.
  Very Rare: Two commons, one Very Rare. TWO DIFFERENT Rare Enhancements from same tree.
  Don't Make VR's until you are satisfied with what you have.

  Breakdowns, Downgrades and Sidegrades: All Thread style salvage (except Threads), can be for free downgraded into a lesser kind of salvage of choice.  Usually a bad idea to do.  Sidegrades, you pay some threads and turn a salvage into any salvage of the same tier.  Useful if you made a mistake in your rewards table selection and don't want to wait until you get another rare or very rare table reward.  Ooops!  I took a rare ancient text when I wanted a rare Exotic Isotope!  30 threads and BAM, all done... its 150 threads to sidergrade a VR though.

  Astral Merits:  See the incarnate vendor link.  But also, you Get astrals for accomplishing goals in Trials.  you get 4 or 5ish every Lam or Baf.  If you already won an EMP within 20 hours from a trial,its an extra Astral instead.  you can turn one astral into 4 threads.  Or, 32 Astrals = Certain unique recipes, like Blessing Of the Zephyr's -Kb slot.
  Important:  The EMP vendor sells things that are also available for Astrals.  If you spend EMP's on something you could have gotten with more plentiful astrals, then Baby New Year will stalk you and watch you as you sleep in a creepy manner.  The most tricky of this being 'Ascension' armors.  Only the armors that say Ascension RADIANCE need EMPs.  (Also, there is no Radiance Cape.  The Astral Merits gained cape is it, but it has the glow effects anyway).

  Empyrean Merits:  EMP Merits, you can get once every 20 hours per individual trial beaten.  Behavioral Adjustment Facility (BAF) and The Lambda Sector (LAM) are worth one each every 20 hours.  These are reasonable, BAF being the easier of the two.  The recently nerfed in difficulty Keyes Trial, Gives Two EMP every 20 hours.  Keyes is a bit crazy, but teamwork (and players who know what they are doing, I beat it without a clue thanks to people like that) can pull it off, but it's longer and harder.

  How Many EMPs Will I need?:  Refer to link. But, if your lazy...

  69 total:
  Ascension Radiance Armor: 6*6= 36
  Trail Auras (Take same costume slot as Regular Aura): 6*3= 18
  Costume Change Emotes: 5*3= 15
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pygwHPW8Yt8   CCE Emotes video.

  36+18+15= 69

  Things you can get for just astrals:
  Non Radiance Ascension armor (only way to get the cape)
  Regular Aruas.
  Regular Emotes (like collapse and swoon).
  Chest emblems, which cost only 1 Astral each.
  http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/...te_Chest_Symbols.jpg

  Underground Trial:  Stay away from this.  Sure, 2 EMPS if you beat it, but it takes forever and even if you survive to the final boss room. it has complete BS MAG 20 confuse effect in the ENTIRE cave (Translation, no single power in the game, even among the few confuse protections, can stop it.)  On top of fighting a crazy Giant Monster.  If you ever run a UG, only do it with a fresh 50 who has never done any trials, because there are a LOT of enemies, and you get both kinds of incarnate experience for it.  You will lose, but you will get exp faster.

  Reward Table Odds:  Recently, they buffed the odds of getting an uncommon or rare table if you beat the Keyes.  Meanwhile, you are guaranteed to get either a rare or very rare, IF you beat the Underground trial.  Do not expect me to ever be able to describe the Keyes strategy in a comprehensible manner,  or the Underground Strategy beyond swear words.

  Trial Badges and you:  The very first time you get a badge for a trial, it gives a random form of uncommon incarnate salvage.  Just throwing that out there.

  Incarnate Experience:  Running trials grants incarnate experience, which is needed to unlock the slots above the Alpha slot.
  Psychic Experience: Unlocks the Judgment (Nuke) and Lore (Summon) slots.  BAF, Keyes, and UG enemies grant this.
  Physical Experience: Unlocks the Interface (attack proc), and Destiny (area Click Buff) Slots.
  A reminder that the Lore, and Destiny slots at the highest up are what you need to stick rares in for the extra Level +'s.

  Make a Rare Alpha as your First Alpha:  +1 Lv buff EVERYWHERE.

Strategy Guides!: BAF is the super kiddy Trial.  LAM takes some attention.  Keyes is work.   UG is BS.  Linked guides may not be exact to most common methods actually used on Freedom, but it fills you in on the general situation.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/...ility_Trial/Strategy
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/...ector_Trial/Strategy
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/...actor_Trial/Strategy

Emmy is a Tanker, so get used to demands you pull the AV's to the tennis court in BAF if you're the only tanker.

Lucky, your Decoys could get people killed used recklessly since you cant control them, but people will want to give you hugs and cookies during BAF escape phase.  While fighting the AVs, your watch any of your pets that can be targeted by enemies to make sure you dont cause Ring Fail via your pets (Decoys should be safe. I dunno if your spectre thingy can be targeted or not)

For all trials, learn to pay attention to giant words that show up on your screen for two seconds, and the timers and counters window (that also shows AVN health bars, clicking that targets AV).


My incomprehensible gibberish attempt at BAF explanation:
  1: Start BAF.
  2: Enter the door at the top of the little staircase.
  3: MURDER until the kill counter in your event stats window is satisfied.
  4: Go To Tennis Court. Tanker Pulls Nightstar to tennis court, careful as wall turrets activate in this segment.
  5:  Murder Nightstar at the requested section of Tennis court.  if you get two floating rings around you, MOVE AWAY FROM BOSS.  Three rings = unreistable hold to you and all allies near you.  Waves of reinforcment boss bots come periodically during this.
  6:  Escape Phase.  People do this in two styles I've seen.  'chokes' where people gather in locations along the north and south sidewalks where a majority of enemies will pass by.  And 'doors', where a clump of people will attempt to murder everything that comes out.
  ESCAPE WARNING:  escapees have confuse auras.  The luits are IMMUNE to all effects (slow, hold, immob, etc).  if 20 escapees make it to the exit points (which get shown on map)m you fail trial.  if nobody escapes, badge and extra astral. if 1-19 escape, tears.  North side is easier than south side.
  7: Pull Seige to Nightstar's corpse.  MURDER as before.
  8: Fight Seige and Nightstar at same time, MURDER as before trying to keep them near eachother.
  DOUBLE AV FIGHT WARNING: If you do not kill both AVs within 10 seconds of eachother, they both pop back to full health.


  My rambling LAM explanation:  (not Speed LAM)

  TEMP POWERS WARNING!: LAM results in special Temp powers REQUIRED to live.  They are randomly assigned to random players when a Tube or Crate is destroyed.  Due to game quirks, they will not automatically place themselves in your power trays except for 1, 2, and 3 of your main power tray.  If you free up a bunch of slots in like, tray 4, they wont auto place whether you toggled to 4, or have a free floating extra power tray.
  In short, free up two or three spaces in one of your first three power trays.

  PACIFICATION GRENADES: When it says Maurader is really really pissed off, use a pacification grenade to keep him from regenerating like crazy and kicking all your asses.

  ACIDS:  These are used to destroy dimensional portals during the AV fight phase, CAUTION: if you do it to close they hurt (and can kill) yourself.  Further quirk, some people like to kill all gates, some people like to leave them all open,
  And most commonly, some people like to save the two by the exit gate open while the rest are destroyed, wait till a certain time on the clock for a mass of enemies to built up, then nuke the bejezus out of everything (cause X enemy kills in that phase gets extra astral).  Or at least, TRY.
  It seems that many people are incapable of A) reading a clock. B) listening to requests like 'don't aggro the boss yet' 'check your temp powers'.

  1: MURDER.  Kill everything outside of the gates.  Then, kill the entry doors and kill all enemies inside the walls (there some above and behind the inner gates structure).  Then, destroy all turrets around the base.
  2: Go inside the base, kill Elite boss robot.  After that, teams split into Warehouse team and Labs team.  Labs are the closer elevators, warehouse is the down the hall elevator.  Warehouse team runs around looking for crates to destroy (grants grenades to anyone who's been inside warehouse).  Labs team runs around destroying tubes (grants acids).  If people are running around both places, it grants extra time needed to pull this off, which is why people don't do one after the other.
  2.b:  You will come to hate tanks/brutes with stealth powers and/or super speed.  You are in a hurry to pull off goals, yes.  But watch out, as a lot of the time the 'tank' people will zip off the instant a goal is busted open leaving the squishies to deal with LOTS of aggro.  battle orbs ignore stealth.  If a team pulls off actually sticking together though, it is beautiful (an almost all Corrupter team, was the fastest LAM I've ever been on).
  3:  While the labs/warehouse raid targets are not marked on the map, you do get a kill counter for them.  they are always in same spots so its a matter of practice (or, following tankers like a violent puppy).  If one team finishes first, 10 seconds later they are teleported out, then you go help the other team.
  4: Both labs and warehouse done?  Go back to the inside walls but outdoors area, STAY ON THE RAMP.
  5: Marauder shows up.  From here, argue over what to do with the acids/when to wait to for attacking/etc. Ire asside, this goes easy as long as people pay attention and don't ignore what is said.
  MAURADER ATTACK WARNING:  Giant words will show up on the screen if A) he is about to pull a Punch Of Kill Everything (move away then)  B) he is SO ANGRY USE A GRENADE.
  LAM not as bad as it sounds:  Really, the 'worst' part of LAM is A) if you left behind to die in the lab/warehouse phase.  B) if people do their own silly thing at the AV fight.  The rest of it makes you fee like an incredible badass.

  My most hilarious in game death ever:  One time I landed on top of a lamp post during the AV fight.  Maurader walked over, jumped up, and punched the last 1/4 of my lifebar into space.  Then he went back to fight the rest of the teams.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:58, Sun 04 Dec 2011.

Thanks so much for the helpful info.  Perhaps some day I'll actually understand it.  The one thing I wanted to know that I don't remember finding anywhere is how does one go about actually joining a raid?  You stand in Pocket D and shout, "Tank and troller looking for BAF!" for half an hour?  Once invited, then what?  go to Peregrin Island?  Warzone?  Or just ask the team, "I've never done this, tell me what to do?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:08, Wed 30 Nov 2011.

  Remember that Halloween mission we did?  Leader uses the Que system (that LFG button by Team, League, etc), and if everyone is in the same zone it will just teleport you into the mission.  If everyone on the league ISN'T int he same zone, then the Leader can't even start up the waiting Que, let alone anyone get into the trial.  Pocket D anyone can go to so that's why everyone does it there (I've heard people whined on Virtue about it ruining their pretend party time, so there they do it at Vanguard).

  Don't go running off to somewhere else to do auction stuff or Crafting in your SG while you're waiting. (some people actually do that still -.-).
  People will just overreaction whine if you're not there to click the 60 second 'are you actually ready? Yes/Cancel' when the Que wait is over.

  However, while you may be thinking 'oh that's fine, it just means I have to wait till another leage', that is not true.  Due to the X amount of people requirements of Trials,  One person durping out trying to Form a LAM, can result in everyone getting sent to the 'needs less people at minimum, but is way harder' Keyes Island Trial.
  Thanks superstar. (Not that I'm bitter because that happened to a LAM I was trying to form or anything, that would be crazy).

  Another detail that is SUPER IMPORTANT I forgot to mention.  League chat was not visible by default, so make sure it's actually turned on for each character.  If you don't turn it on then you will end up 'That jerk who keeps ignoring what everyone says' on Trials.  This will take about as much effort as making sure HahaChat is on for any given character.

  I'm also suspecting they never fixed the bug where the leagues, and even who is leader, often gets shuffled around once you enter a Trial -.-  (It even did that on our Halloween Mission Run).  There are 'lock teams' buttons for leagues, but those didn't help there.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:15, Wed 30 Nov 2011.

Why didn't they read the trial post before doing trials?



Time budgeting has become a topic of much arg for Tim and I.  Put it on calendar a month in advance, tell family about it repeatedly, make it an ongoing thing every weekend at the same time every. single. week...  STILL get "so what you doing this evening?" from parents on weekends.  Every.  Single.  Week.

That's the only thing we bother scheduling any more because it's necessary to keep our "would be late for his own funeral" friend anywhere near reliable.  Most everything else, we no longer bother scheduling in advance.  Life has been so predictably unpredictable that we know with absolute certainty that if we schedule something important to us, something more important WILL crop up to cancel the appointment.

So prioritizing what to do next has long been on a moment-by-moment thing for us.  There's always piles to do with differing levels of urgency.  Work on art, research insurance, deal with money issues, take car to garage, do trash, watch a TV show, reply to RPOL posts, play some CoX, etc. etc.  Never nothing to do.

Speaking for myself, I literally don't have any free time at all unless I'm procrastinating on some RL thing that needs done.  I've had to learn the art of "OK sure, I'll get on that" (but not right now) delay tactics in order to ever do anything fun.  I'm rather proud of figuring out how to sneak RPOL posts printout into work and read / reply to them in the 10-20 second gaps of dead time I have to do so in between phone calls.  Then when home, type up the handwritten posts over reheated dinner during mandatory TV time with old man.  With this technique I've learned to squeeze a few more minutes out of my at-home time so I can do stuff I want to.  Again, only because I'm putting off fixing dad's watch or dealing with cleanup.

So when Tim and I have a moment of peace from "the gauntlet" downstairs, I'll ask, "So what you wunna do?  I'd like to watch the last of Cowboy Bebop so I can delete it off my HD."  Tim: "Well I'd like to get some accomplished on my comic, and there's these DA comments to answer."  Me: "I've got stuff to do too.  Lemme know if you decide on something we can do together."  Tim: "Joe's on.  Let's see if he wants to hang out on CoX."  Me: "OK."

CoX time has made the cut!  So it's time to focus on actually enjoying CoX.  Oh.  Char needs enhanced.  Meh.  Chore.  Not fun.  No time for that.  Time to play!  Inventory near full.  Uh... well... Joe hasn't logged on yet, probably juust enough time to dump stuff in AH.  Joe logs in about when inventory chores are done.  Score!  Let's XP.  Oh yeah!  Tips!  Great way 2 have fun AND earn CoX cash.  Fun with side benefit that would otherwise be a chore.  Score!

/remembers the other day when Tim and Joe did trial with only minor hitch in the time it took me to nap.  /also remembers only ;.; was Emmy picked the "wrong" reward.  Eh.  Whatevs.  Don't have time now to bother with looking up what the "right" reward is.  Maybe there'll be time when waiting in that que thing.  Worse comes to worst, I'll just have learned how to survive a trial without having picked the right reward.

*Reskims Joe post on trials*  Picking rewards sure looks complicated.  *Skims for "SUPER IMPORTANT"  Oh yeah!  Turn on League chat.  Done.  Oh!  Time to get started!  I didn't expect it to be so fast.  I guess if there's something important, it'll be mentioned in the trial...

Trial goes well!  We win!  /desperately try to figure out what pick to take before exiting.  Another trial forming already?  /guesses a pick.  Exits.  Immediately taken to next trial.

Trial goes well!  We win!  /desperately try to figure out what pick to take before exiting.  Another trial forming already?  /guesses a pick.  Exits.

3rd trial a no go.  So now I get to find out how badly I picked while Tim figures out what he wants to do next...  Starts looking...  Joe super unhappy even though trial went well, threatening to murder brother.  Oh.  Obviously he's being silly.  But Tim took it seriously.  Did I miss something here?  When did Joe suddenly become serious business in CoX with his "won't ever use set bonuses" and his "let's facepalm at Freepyface for his 'wah wah i fail because i can't solo cape mish on +4x8'" and his "stopping to shoot the breeze in the middle of XP missions even though he hates losing HP" etc.

Joe insists multiple times, "This is the one thing I arg over."  OK.  So he's serious business about the one thing.  But didn't ask us before trial started if we were ready for the one thing that matters so much to him that he's making death threats after a successful trial.  Oh he assumed we had studied the post carefully.  So we explained, "no time."  Now I feel like he's calling us liars because we do tips rather than read up on trials.

/heavysigh.  Of course I'd made assumptions too.  Here I thought "SUPER IMPORTANT" meant "I want to save you some hassle so I'm going to go to the effort of text dump what I learned the hard way.  Your loss if you learn the hard way too" (which is appreciated) not "I will all caps 'light strangers on fire with my mind' if they dare fail me in this one thing."  Tim and I were thinking, "If we ever get the rare opportunity to do a trial, we'll likely be very fail at it, get screamed at by serious business players, read up on Joe's post to find out what gives because the screaming people aren't being helpful, then be a little better prepared for the 2nd go around."  Neeever crossed our minds that Joe would be among the screamers.

How does one accurately describe "what we didn't even realize was super important to you was so low on our priority scale that it barely even registered on the to-do list?"  Me, I do not enjoy pouring over game mechanics.  I enjoy playing games.  I barely put up with pouring over game mechanics when doing so improves my enjoyment of the game.  When the effort of game mechanics pouring > than the increase in fun, I put it off till I have absolutely nothing better to do, such as the time when thanksgiving dinner was over and I had my netbook with gamma world books on it, so I read that.  (Discovered to my delight that Gamma World was originally a very simple system for chargenning if you don't houserule it.  Then return and find out "piles of effort required to play with Seth.")

So.  Reading up on game mechanics low on priority list, even when friends make it clear it's required.  Will bump up to "won't do trials till after reading this" level priority if said friend says, "Trials?  Did you read the part about Acid?  I'm not starting until you read that part."  Problem solved!

EDIT:  This picture illustrates what I think is going through Joe's mind... http://img.photobucket.com/alb...well/riddlerooms.png

Big guy: "You pick NOW to read the book on translating the hyroglyphs, not BEFORE we entered this place?!"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:05, Tue 06 Dec 2011.

  Even though you aren't insane 'serious business' players, I still hold you to a higher standard than the bleh players who ignore mid mission requests, or assume healer on team =they should be invincible, why didn't you make me immortal Imma ragequit! sort.

  I figure we're all around roughly the same area of expertise/knowledge.  We play with mids, we look at sets if they actually interest us and seem convenient to get (Well, okay Chris is better than me and Tim combined there), and the normal content we run at non max all purples lol we make beg for mercey usually.

  Alloy's request of "Check your temp powers for Acids, to use on the portals. Keep Two by exit open for now", of course was ignored by basically everyone in the Trial. (Two were done by one person who had two acids... Then in the last 5 seconds before the end someone decided to finally use theirs).  The randomized nature of who gets the temp powers also reduces you to wild accusations, instead of constructive things like 'player X, you have Acid/grenades, please help us out'.
  The general populace attitude towards Acids also has grown worse,  the Speed Lam (Slam) seems to have become the default, where people can't reduce themselves to not dogpiling Maurader ASAP intent on gunning them down before the infinite reinforcements from the portals grow too big to handle.

  So, there's the double whammy of 'This ONE things! aaaarg!' (I've come out of Longer than an hour In Mission alone Underground trials only to fail at the last room with merely a shrug by comparison.), and 'Oh well, at least Tim and Chris will listen to me about Acids and the screen filling 'throw grenade now' prompts... *asks about temp powers post mish*'
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbOjS0Ah7_o

  Back on my reaction, 'I will *censored* murder you' is probably too straightforward a comment to pass the 'crossing the line into nonsensical'.  Plus I've been reminded how said comment hits close to home with bad memories.  Definitely sorry for that one.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Tue 06 Dec 2011.

LOL at the link! But yeah. Said sorry a number of times. And again, sorry. XD again, thinking it was those crafted temp powers (since I'm not used to "here have a temp power on us" happening much and the new craftable temp powers range from guns, to hammers to healing people, I thought there might be a crafted acid power). On the bright side, this is obviously something I won't forget next time. But I was serious about reading this thread thoroughly before touching trials again.

  A wild resubscriber has appeared!

  Raikoo Baphomel used Titan Weapon! It was super effective!

  Baphomel Leveled up!  Baphomel is now level 15!... And somehow also has twice as much prestige earned as T'Shock as well, go figure.  Granted they had help for half those levels.

  Yes, of course the one day you haven't been on City lately, guess who was back?

TIMING!

http://na.cityofheroes.com//en...s/WinterMTX_logo.jpg

  This pic is for self reference as I look into the exact parts needed.  Koo said they were trying to make a costume 'like the Xmas Elf on the far left'.  I thought they meant the  one you give candy canes to.  This pic is basically only reachable by clicking a link in the NCsoft launcher, and it's not always there.  (I discovered the Cane Elf has unique pattern for default Martial Artist one... So my 'you can't make same robe Elf has' I told Koo was false sad news)

  I must make a list of parts (though, dont think Koo has the MA pack, or the Origin Capes).  I recognize but can never remember the name of those shoulders.

EDIT: Warrior Fire Robe, Autumnal Cloak (Origin Capes), Koo already got the Xmas Booster.  shoulders are Organic. (a default shoulder, not part of Mutant Pack).  If you see Koo before I do, please pass this along, and point out he can buy the individual costume pieces if need be.  6 Levels be damned, I still feel like I let them down.

EDIT THE SECOND: Whaaaa ;.;  They cheat on the face.  No face that detailed exists for PC usage.  The 'doesn't exist' skin color can be faked via Tights/ 'All' face pattern, (Noh plus darker green skin would have pulled inverse to get the eye makeup right... but your would then have darkgreen around your lips)

  So, you can get everything BUT the 'they cheated' face.  I know because I built the thing... on Furious Skull's third costume slot.  Don't judge me.

Incidentally, Female face 18 seems to have freckles.  But I can see why you use spots pattern for Alexis, as they are veeeeery faint ones on Face 18.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:00, Fri 23 Dec 2011.

Side note of goody goodness;

Remember when Titan Weapons expansion weapons was free? Well it's good we got it when we did. It's now 240pp.

And along those lines, I now have 3 more weapons m'self because there's a new tier 9 VIP thingy! The weapons included in the "Fire and Ice" pack apparently apply to titan weapons as well as normal weapon slots (such as dual blade)!

In other good news, for those of you not yet at tier 9, the website claims that the Celestial armor set will still be available for a while before being "cycled out", BUT!! There's this beautiful parenthesis saying (To return at a later date)!! So don't worry too much. Even if you don't become tier 9 before celestial armor goodies vanish, the plan is apparently to bring them back later.

WHY THE HELL IS THE DIGSBY FOLDER 69 MEGABITES and over 4k files. (Aim is 17 MB, by comparison).  Also, WHY THE HELL CAN'T I SEEM TO GET RID OF DIGSBY!?

Make it go away ;.;
This message was last edited by the player at 10:12, Thu 12 Jan 2012.

http://forum.digsby.com/viewtopic.php?id=116

I'm convinced that all chat programs are evil.  Especially MSN and Yahoo.  This is why I refuse to install them on my PC and instead use my netbook for such dirty work.  I've been running Pidgin on it for months and months now without much issue: http://www.pidgin.im/

*looks at task manager*  the memory used by Pidgin fluctuates.  Anywhere from 400ish K to 1,600 K.

Opens install folder...  Uses about 50 MB of disk space.

 [Broadcast] Stepe: hello, I'm a lvl 17 brute looking for a team to play with please send a invite if insterested. Thank you.


....Wow!

The old SG base plans:

https://docs.google.com/spread...wcFJUZ1Y0Q0hYS2luTmc

The idea was to maximize the bigness feel.  Biggest Power Room!  Biggest Computer Room!  Entrance right next to the giant room of bigness!

Various Cleverness:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=190447

Waterfall:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com...t=126358&page=57

The biggest Tech Control thingy "autonomous expert system" takes 4x2 room units.  The tightest fit is the 4x3 room.

Has a magical equivalent, the http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Mystic_Orrery


Fusion Generator (5 MIL prestige!)
has a footprint of 4x4 map squares meaning the smallest room it will fit in is the 4x4 Energy Station or 4x5 Secure Generator Room.

Dimensional Vortex
This item has a footprint of 4x4 map squares meaning the smallest room it will fit in is the 4x4 Energy Station or 4x5 Secure Generator Room.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:21, Fri 20 Jan 2012.

Also, so I don't forget and stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...mp;feature=endscreen

    *  Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Confusion Resistance
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Fear Resistance
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Fire Resistance
    * Temporary ResonanceDisrupter.png Grant Invisibility  (Stacks with Celerity and Super Speed!  +25' PvE stealth.  Tech preferred salvage: 1 Silver
Salvage IceShard.png 1 Nevermelting Ice
Salvage Gold.png 1 Gold )
    * Temporary SelfBuffAttackSpeed.png Increase Attack Speed
    * Temporary AntigravityMatrix.png Increase Flight Speed
    * Temporary JumpPack.png Increase Jump Speed
    * Temporary WeddingBand.png Increase Perception
    * Temporary SelfBuffRunSpeed.png Increase Run Speed
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Knockback Increase
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Knockback Protection
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Lethal Resistance
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Sleep Resistance
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Slow Resistance
    * Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Smashing Resistance

Teir II

#  Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Cold Resistance
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Disorient Resistance
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Endurance Drain Resistance
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Energy Resistance
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Immobilize Resistance
# Temporary Mayhem SelfBuffEnd.png Increase Recovery
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Negative Energy Resistance
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Toxic Resistance

Teir III

#  Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Hold Resistance
# Temporary CryoniteArmor.png Psionic Resistance

  Yeah, the Fine print regarding the Resonance disruptor (gained during a mission) "Duration: 30 minutes of use or upon return to contact".  Not as bad as the '30 minutes realtime or return to contact' disguise=stalker stealth powers.  But the real problem here is On top of that it's permanently missable anyways with no Flashback access.

  The Cryonite Armor is also one of the powers that you CAN'T get in the first place if you miss, or get a weaker refill of via Flashbacks.

  Mayhem self endurance buff... Uh, yeah.  That's a Bank mission 'once ever gained' temporary buff.  Heroside has one too.

  Antigravity Matrix is like Goldbrickers jetpack (also, another 'can't get via Flashback' one).  Also like Goldbrickers Jetpack, you can't get it via Flashbacks if you miss it in the firstplace.

  The Wedding band is a popular one that CAN be gained via Flashbacks (Weaker version for regains).

  The 'attackspeedbuff' is so vague that I have no idea what that could be from.

  But, yeah. Pesky details.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Temporary_Powers
Powers with the time portal symbol are good.  Gold=You either keep it or anytime you go back to get another is full strength.  Silver=When you go back to get another one it's a weaker version.
!= talking to mission complete contact makes them yoink the power even if it has time or charges left (like the lost cure wand).

I think the Ghost slaying axe having a gold symbol is an error, recall notes talking about how the regained version is weaker one (ala the veteran version, plus it's a case of talk to contact=lose power)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Fri 20 Jan 2012.

I've been in the mood to RP CoH again lately, but I'd rather try to avoid "haha game mechanics". So let's try to treat this like a generic superhero comic book. :)

Meaning we're not limited to what we can do in the game.  Sweet!  This means that my electric armor makes me able to pull Magneto stunts...  *Gets curb stomped by a herd of Edwards.*

Kidding!  Was only... kidding.

Idea for big rooms:  Flight course.  Ground obstacle course.  Maybe even a Sonic R style race course for different travel modes.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:15, Mon 23 Jan 2012.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com...?t=280149&page=2

Sounds cool!  With 40% S/L defense, i'll be near invincible and wade into huge +4x8 purple groups, shrugging off their attacks and laughing like all those nifty uber tanks do that i've seen in soooo many teams.

not so.

after spending piles of inf, i got up to 36% and decided to hold out on the 1.5 billion unique for the last 3 or so %.  Jumped into an +4x8 mission and got torn to pieces with my million toggles going.  didnt hardly get a chance to eat an insp.

try 2: open with judgement!  survive long enough to use heal power!  die horrible death.

try 3-5: drop diff down to +0x8.  try insps.  die horribly.  Last time to 3 whole enemies.  normal con enemies.

try 6:  switched back to my tried-and-true build.  survive more than twice as long!  At least I killed a boss before biting the dust again!

try 7: tim's had enough of freep and logs out.  complete mish!

so i stick to old build +0x1 on my missions and finish up.  on the last mission i'm looking at my old build's stat monitor.  S/L defense jumps from 0 to over 17!  Whaaa?  Defensive Sweep hits again and it jumps to over 34!  Waaaait.  I thought it was only +MELEE defense!  It MUST be.  Otherwise forum guy wouldn't have made it the last power pick and only put 1 afterthought enhancement in it...   *Looks*  There it is.  Power adds huge chunk of S/L defense, invalidating the entire point of that other build.

http://www.motifake.com/image/...oster-1245384435.jpg

So yeah.  Lesson learned.  Though I still wonder how those other brutes and tanks can just walk right into a +4x8 group and laugh.

Apples to Oranges



Taken from: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=112232

An even level minion villian has a base 50% chance to hit you if you have no defense and no buffs or debuffs from friends or foes and the villian has no 'to hit' bonus and no 'to hit' buffs or debuffs from friends or foes.

An even level leutenant has a base 62.5% chance to hit under the same conditions as above.

An even level boss has a base 75% chance to hit under the same conditions as above.

If you activate a power that supplies you with 5% defense (like Combat Jump, Hover or Hasten), then looking at the base numbers above, an even con minion now has 45% chance to hit you.

If a villian is 1 level above you, then he gets a 6.5% bonus to hit you. If you you are 1 level above the villian, you get a 6.5% bonus to hit the villian.

---

OK so... the damage mitigation of a SR tanker vs an EVEN LEVEL boss is... 75-41=34% chance of being hit for full damage.  So effectively, 66% resistance to all damage.  Not bad.  But vs a +1 boss, that effectiveness diminishes by 6.5%.  So 59.5%  Vs +2 boss: 53%  Vs +3 46.5%  Vs +4 40%.

Anyway, did this little bit of research for this thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com...=4131764#post4131764
This message was last edited by the player at 23:24, Sat 25 Feb 2012.

Not to mention <broken record> Trial enemies have a +10% better hit chance on top of all being level 54</broken record>  And there are a zillion of them taking shots at you at once.

  Plus, there is the 'Streakbreaker' mechanic.  Basically, after X misses (apparently it's easier to bork up your odds of it kicking in with PC attack chains) you get an automatic guaranteed hit.

/macro TL "team Looks like $target needs more lasers!$$e bringit"

or,    /macro MACROBUTTON "team Bath Time! $target$$e getsome"

Issue 22.  Supposedly hits Tuesday.  No wonder people have been market gouging.

No official confirmation of Staff fighting or Beast mastery yet until they put up patch notes after the patch.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:51, Sat 03 Mar 2012.

Last night after you left on City I got...

  -All the way through the Maria Jenkins Arc, finally getting Dominatrix Cred and Statesman's pal (They dont have you fight Tyrant anymore, just an AV Olympian guard, laaaame).
  -Fake Nemesis Badge, therefore Nemesis rifles (and matching Steampunk costume set up).
  -The former leading to Freedom Phalanx Reserve +Health Accolade.
  -Hit Level 50.
  -Unlocked Alpha slot. (used 5 astral voucher)
  -Ran and won a single BAF and LAM each.
  -BAF success got siege cred, therefore portal Jockey Accolade +Health, +Endurance done.

Today...

A mix between leading and following...
Two out of three BAFs failed.
Six out if Six Speed LAMS failed.
BONUS!: Since you skip so many kills in a Speed LAM, while I've barely unlocked Judgment, I still haven't unlocked Interface, which is the side LAMs give EXP towards.

One Regular LAM (advertised as constantly, people still didn't get it, as USUAL).  People whining, complaining, gnashing teeth about how sloooooow it was, and having to forcibly recall friend people into the labs.  THAT was a Win.  Go figure.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:48, Sun 04 Mar 2012.

Woot gratz on infinity accomplishments! Sadface on sadface day. ;.;

S'why I'd rather just hang with you and/or Chris on CoX. Accomplishments are a wonderful, wonderful thing. But fun times with a friend is incomparable. :)

Granted, solo has its own fun. Such as reading all these badges I collect, getting myself drenched in the CoX lore. XD Even as I write this, I turned on a youtube playlist of the entire CoX soundtrack (One of CoX's shortcomings is that the soundtrack doesn't loop, so most the game is soundtrackless. WoW and FFXI had nonstop soundtracks.)

Chris mentioned how little there were for sets that boosted range.  Well, he's right there.  Here's a link to all FOUR of them (not listing the Archetype Enhancements)

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/...s_that_improve_Range

And all of them PvP sets.  Meaning extremely expensive.  ;.;

Ack! I hadn't even noticed the PvP set part -.-;

In semi related since super hero news.
http://threepanelsoul.com/2012...n-secret-identities/

Why have I never heard this angle brought up before?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:59, Mon 12 Mar 2012.

LOL!  Yeah it's embarrassing to wear some dress shirts because of chest hair / nipples showing through.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

D6 difficulty chart


so 9D still doesn't quite make "moderate" on a catastrophic fail.  Bright side, it'll only happen once every 46,656 rolls...  which means a lot when you plug in murphey's law.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:12, Sat 17 Mar 2012.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=278632

I had been completely unaware of the existence of this.

It's another loyalty bonus package, for having active sub from December 1st 2011 through March 31st 2012.  Payoff is supposed to be April 18th.

Tempered Through Fire, a new Account-Wide Badge.
The Helm of Zeus and the Helm of Tartarus. Two new helmets, inspired by Statesman and Lord Recluse.
Paragon, a new Chest Emblem that all Heroes or Villains can wear proudly.
The Inner Will costume change emote. Tap into primal forces to change into a new costume.
A non-combat companion pet. (Unspecified)
The Battle Fury Aura. Your character will appear to be channeling awesome cosmic powers.

The link just lists what I did, but also has concept art for the helmets.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:27, Sun 15 Apr 2012.

Something all three of us can celebrate. Heeee.... XD

Ah, extra costume slot.  One of the most worthwhile purchases in the store.

A reminder for if you ever break down deciding on buying permanent cape or auras unlocks.  Buy Auras FIRST.

Why?  Because if you buy cape unlock, you still need to run the cape missions anyways before you can get at the aura unlock missions.

O.o ...thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep that in mind. And yeah... forgot I could buy perma-unlock on capes/auras.

Update for Mids.

The expected: Water Blast.

The UNexpected:  They put in the Beta versions of upcoming Bio Armor and Nature affinity which are going live "soon".

EDIT: Patch notes say it's the BETA version of water in Mids right now.  Ooops.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:02, Sat 14 July 2012.

Huh.

Defender Psychic Mastery Dominate (which can be gained at lv 35 these days) Is a better HOLD, than Ice blast's Bitter Freeze Ray (lv 35 access for defenders).

I am glad I noticed this, it clinches what Epic pool to use for Frost Frank, even if the only power I snag is that, I can stack it wonderfully with Freeze Ray (lv 18 for Defender) for boss freezing goodness.

Freeze ray all by itself is almost as good as lv 1 Troller hold after slots, but I can't "spare" slots for that till like, lv 36.

For great justice!

Nice nod to the tip mission "An Obvious Trap" there, Alloy! :)

You're still up, Will! :)

Either I got the dates wrong, or got it mixed up with the since aborted Shop maintenance dates.  Double Experience weekend starts Friday the 10th and runs through sunday the 13th.  While captain Mako "week" runs 10 days from the 10th to 20th where the Devs will have GM controlled Mako show up once per server each day.

He of course, shows up on TWO days for the ViP only server :eyeroll:
This message was last edited by the player at 12:25, Tue 07 Aug 2012.

Before I finally sleep which I should have done hours ago.

EDIT:  ... Oh, sleep lacking means I MISSREAD POST. whoo

Prior posts indicated Bamzor is teleporting the whole lot of them to the Peregrine Island ferry, right between the Police drones for extra safety (Hopefully those are not on the fritz TOO).  It would have made more sense to go to the hospital for wounded, but Bamzor was expecting 'Evacuate the Zone!' scale explosions.

EDIT Two:  Mental Image of Kyle Crookes off somewhere crying into a bottle at the mention of Bomb Squads.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:33, Tue 14 Aug 2012.

http://www.furaffinity.net/full/7876639/

Yuffie pic link from Kalinka.  Relevant because they linked it inside CoX the game!

Guild Wars 2.  Out of digital copies.

I did however, order it physical copy wise on amazon for the hell of it.  Supposed arrival date Thursday.   Even if I'm grabbing it, not like there is any rush.  City is still up.

Ye olde "Races are segregated to their own tutorial zone and starter zones" like WoW/EQ.  But also at least some "Dynamic level scale" stuff for higher level people to still do stuff in lower areas.

Yes, there is a midget race.  According to Mako, in the first game one of the Asura was voiced By/like The Brain, Orson Wells impression style.

EDIT: Also a reminder of one of the more... Unique good perks in Champions online for subscribers.  "You got a character to max level?  Have an extra character slot.  You got another character to max level?  You know what you get? ANOTHER Character slot."

also...




EDIT: More Guild Wars bits.

"Axe or Mace? Rifle or Greatsword? You know, they're all good."  supposedly, Warrior Style Soldiers have a side in rifle proficiency (can't use pistols though).
This message was last edited by the player at 12:11, Sun 02 Sept 2012.

Salvation!

http://co-forum.perfectworld.c...owthread.php?t=49161

Q: "I see a heavy black outline around the characters, especially at a distance. Is this normal? Is this something that can be minimized?"
A: "it can be turned off just turn on advanced setting for grapics and find the outline setting and check it to off, i orefer it this way myself and it will actully improve performance in game"

One of the big things that I strongly disliked about champs is OPTIONAL!  WOOO!

 Save CoH - Information Masterpost
http://tinyurl.com/CoHmasterpost

So.  Guild wars came TODAY o.o

I was gonna do 4 buck "get it today (as in, it's 4AM, get it while it's still sunday!) for the novelty of getting mail on a Sunday, but Brother convinced me to do Free 2 Day because "Nothing comes sunday, and it's a holiday".

Came today anyways.

Not intending to play it much tonight, but I am setting it up and thus giving you an heads up for if you ever pick up the game sometime.

I set Maguuma as my "Home Realm" (apparently gotta pay to change that) since that's where the crazed SA Goons are, and I have no idea what realm Mako plays around on anyways.


Also, yeah CO option to turn off the black border was something I mentioned way back when, and I used it myself.  Less because I hated it, and more because I wanted a better view of how my shiny robots turned out in shiny quality during costume creation.

EDIT: I saw the fact the Asura got golem summons for racial skills coming (including a piloted mech for yourself or ally)... But I did not see "Cat person racial skills". coming.  BAZOOKAS! ALL THE BAZOOKAS!
This message was last edited by the player at 04:06, Mon 03 Sept 2012.

Cat people?  I thought it only had little goblins, plant people, humans, big humans, and cows.

*Alt-Tabs*

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Charr

So it turns our the Charr are cat people with minotaur horns.  You had it right otherwise.

Can understand though, considering some of the Concept art:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/ima...Lord_concept_art.jpg

Also, http://threepanelsoul.com/2012/08/13/on-blood-fiends/

Reminded from seeing some Nord necromancers wandering the Nord tutorial zone.  (I made a Nord Thief).
This message was last edited by the player at 05:35, Mon 03 Sept 2012.

Is it double posting when I change alt names?

http://www.mediafire.com/?zithlkydkgo71eg

The Something Awful Goons have extracted and crammed into a 130 megabyte zip the Music of City Of Heroes.

https://docs.google.com/file/d...Y4QlhtN2M/edit?pli=1

Goons have also collected an old Lore Bible pile of text from "is this official? unofficial?" Stuff intended for a CoH RPG.  Tidbits include the spirit of Lovecraft guiding you into Vs the spirt of Edgar Alen Poe working for the Banished Pantheon, or something.

Chargen related question for Guild Wars 2.

Who should I name, Fiddlesticks.

A) Asura Warrior.  Tiny one foot tall man, big weapon.
B) Sylvari Elementalist.  Tree man loves fire.

---

Also, been doing some Champs research.  Double also, Koo's picked it up, bought some costume stuff (the robot dragon stuff for example), and told me today they saw John on there.

From here is rambling about game mechanics. Feel free to ignore.  Though there is a link to online build planner (offline champs builder seems defunct), and a Mixed Guns with Melee build link at the end.  Because I remember Tim thinking about that for Angel

The champs wiki has some flaws, power entries exist but not all are on the big lists.  Example, Concentration, a kickass Technology group power, is not listed on the Munitions power list.

My plan when I eventually get back to the game is Munitions style guy, with a slant towards defense outsourcing into the Martial arts goodies instead of raw damage.  (This will mean I will have less base damage too, since can't equip a Defensive Slotted Passive, when set to Ranged Damage Role).

Still, Tanky Blaster is a Real Thing.  Whoo Tread.

Do NOT use power armor powers that are "toggle" without consulting me though because holy censored, that power set has some special mechanics traps for uninformed players.  Targeting Computer Slotted Passive is pretty sweet if you want a focus on "Bullets hurt more" though.

Pro Tip: you can retcon out your early "default non energy builder attack" for a Tier 1 power you like better.  Even the premade Archetypes do this (The Soldier, has Assault Rifle as it's first non-Builder power, and doesn't have Two Gun Mojo at all).

Where was I?  Oh, right.  Trying to figure how much of a balance can be pulled off for mix of Guns and Melee (outside of Munitions sole melee attack power), if not stats effectively, at the very least complimenting itself with it's powers.  I'll be taking a stack of martial arts utility powers myself after all for Ninjas Don't Use Guns.

http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html

web builder!  The old offline builder which is even linked off the wiki seems kinda defunct, at the very least not working on implementing the "three days before city closing announcement"  Batman Nighthawk Patch.

The Minimal Rules For Char Building:

Your first levels shall include, in whatever order.

At least one solid single target; Energy builder does not count.

At least one solid Area attack; Minion mulching.  Shotgun, I LOVE YOU.

Your innate Passive benefits power;  For example, Ionic Reverberation if you were Electric, for energy back from electric effects

A Slotted Passive Power;  Keep in mind slotted passives require certain roles, if you are freeform you can swap between role modes.  Recently they have been tweaked to be more awesome ("Avenger" role is gone, the new damage roles don't lower your health)
   Hybrid is the default role which can use any slotted passive.  This is it's only benefit.
   Ranged damage and Melee damage roles can only use offensive passives.  They get bonus damage by default, better damage scaling from stats, less aggro, better energy, better control resistance.
   Tank role can only use defensive Slotted passives.  You are more tanky, you draw more aggro.  No base free damage bonus, but your stats give more value for damage.
   Support Role.  Can only use support Slotted passives. (Oh right, I forgot there was a third kind of slotted passive).  Which are only found in Sorcery, Celestial, and Gadgeteering's Medical Nanites.

  With the ways roles work, looks like my Dodgey Gunner ninja may end up with Tanker Role -.o  Not that I'd notice the aggro difference when solo.

Thrown together Munitions with more Melee attacks  (remember, level 5 is "I skipped the tutorial" Level, so level 6 is just one level past fresh tutorial skip start.  Link had to be split in half cause characters.  you would have to retcon out Two-Guns Mojo.

http://powerhouse.nullware.com...860083009A0089008500
DJ00DK008800IB00DL00D7008J008F003UbL3bhy0CAT

It could work, it's more focused on the guns technically, really the only "outside the box" dipping into unarmed is picking up Dragon kick (or, AoE melee of choice).  Retaliation is the Might Pool block, but it benefits "natural" ranged packing characters more than Martial arts type block (bonuses to ALL damage, plus knockback option.  vs bonus to melee only).  You could be a bit energy hungry due to Ego/Strength secondary, but puts more weight behind Angel bunny kicks.

It just might even outdo my own plan in the ass kicking department since it can go full bore damage.  Vindicator Mastery = Ranged damage stat helps melee, and Melee damage stat helps ranged.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:30, Thu 06 Sept 2012.

Costume parts unlock related

This was posted by a new player in SA, and Raikoo confirms this.

"I tried downloading this and oh jesus the character creator is fucked. I literally could not access 90% of the freely available parts without mashing the "random" button until I saw them pop up, the dropdowns were giving me nothing.

Am I just doing something horribly wrong, or is it really that bad off? I played this during the open beta and had no real problem with it, so did they just horribly fuck it up over the years? "

"You have to finish the tutorial first.

What you want to do is make a throwaway character, finish the tutorial, delete it, and have all the pieces for your real character (Who can now skip the tutorial.) "

Since you both already have accounts though, shouldn't be an issue unless you make a new account. (my old one has SEVENTEEN CHARACTER SLOTS for whatever reason now).

huge rambling about hamidon lore post.  So it turns out the CoH Bible I downloaded (among the LOTS of Lore PDFs I linke to.) Clears up that it's just as generic as I thought.  But provided some finer details, and some "Future plans" bits..

Oh wow.  Hamidon full backstory in the CoH Bible PDF from that PILES OF LORE link I put up.  A goon said to check in there when I was asking if anybody knew the full deal.  Guess this means there isn't any In Game Lore to dig up beyond "Hamidon Pasalima turned himself into a monster with science and magic".

Some further specific details.  Hamidon was Indonesian, broke into a Paragon City lab over Christmas break with the aid of a few super powered more traditional eco terrorists because other labs that had his needs were kerploded across the globe in the Rikti War (one super had Telepathy, the other had invisibility).  His Big plan, use his native roots ritual magic amped with Cellular lab equipment to make Sentient Super Bacteria.

Campus security shows up and catches them as they finish up.  Lone super shows up.  Hamidon goes desperate cliche and chugs the stuff.  Then kills hero and eats most of the eco terrorists that were helping him (so, he started THAT trend early).  Escapes into underground, eventually coughs up mutated ecoterrorists he ate.  The telepathic Ecoterrorist he ate is why DE goons have a psychic com link/see without eyeballs.  The invisibility ecoterrorist is Oh Thank God Never Mentioned Again.

So, the group name Devouring Earth comes from the fact their boss eats them.  How nice.

Hammidon goes on people eating rampage, then gets almost completely eradicated because that attracts attention.  Only hammidon and two DE monsters survive, but they make off with unconscious "Generic strength/toughness" hero and Hamidon eats them... Aaand ate the two surviving DE monsters.  Then spit them out as Boss Monsters.  Thus beginning Hamidons equal opportunity snack habits.  Eating Supers is what = Make a Devourerd/Greater Devoured.

So, hamidon is a generic blob monster/powers copier (only when the plot demands it.  Ate several super teams in the lore bits and NADA).  Blah blah, wants to eat everyone, knows this fact is bad PR so likes leaving behind more generic ecoterrorist messages written in blood.  (one funny example is justifing bank attacks with 'polluting companies have money in banks!').

CoH bible wise, Hammidon is a blobby mouth tentacle monster (like on those billboards in Praetoria show), and the giant cellular monster "Hamidon" is a special purpose broken off piece of him.  Despite the fact IN GAME it outright says that thing IS Hammidon on it's info, let alone name.  Still, it would make more sense that Hammidon is yet another "Background Boss" while the Hamidon Raid one is his "greatest force he can only create in the giant zone he basically owns".

  Unless in game lore wise, a Rikti raid is supposed to be "Defating Hammidon" in the same way in game lore wise, the final Incarnate Trial Kills Tyrant and blows up most of Praetoria, despite the fact Praetoria and Tyrant are still there to everybody in game.  Or how Countess Crey is only known to be evil by the game world after X level, but she's still there when you are level 50.

Villain groups Hamidon hates and vice verca.

The Lost:  Underground dwellers who want to mutate people into their cause rivalry.
The Rikti: Tend to teleport away instead of deal with the jerks forces. (Except when they tried to harness "Weekend hammidon" for power source needs.
Crey: Well, DUH.  The only reason Hamidon cant decide if he hates The Lost, or Crey more is because their forces aren't constantly running into Crey in tunnels.  Also, sweet sweet lab equipment, hami wants.
Nemesis: Dang steampunkers and their plots!
Circle of thorns: Can't get into the Oranbega zones, this annoys him.  Also annoyed that an order of ancient body snatching mages knows more about magic than his "Equivalent of Native American = magical rituals training".  Gee, what a shock.

Hero groups he hates.
Dawn Patrol: ...who are those guys again?

Oh... http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Dawn_Patrol

Yeah, pretty sure some things changed from the Development notes to in game "Oh hey the entire dawn patrol is DEAD"  Except for Lady Jane.

Lore reasons anybody would ever pay attention to something that wants to eat them.  Feel Like A Gullible Hippie Spores basically.  Hammidon is currently "stuck" in paragon because he so fat yo.  His DE entities are a lot more easy to because, you know.  Box of rocks and mold.  Potential future plans implication that they want to check out sea life, pissing off underwater factions (like say, the Coralax.)

Fun Fact: Look and feel section describes "Use Quake style colors except for the plant monsters"

I don't know how many of these are real, since they are labeled as level FIVE missions.  But one includes "Prevent DE from contaminating food for school lunch program".  And a Level Seven included going after Nemesis forces attacking a sports drink company warehouse, only to find they are kicking the ass of DE forces that were trying to contaminate the drinks.  (Foolish DE, they are no match for tamper proof cap warnings!).

"Future" Enemy types:

Amoeba men:  Stack of basketball sized Amoebas clumped into person shape.

Beasts of vengeance: Animals eaten and turned into bipedal animal creatures. Few months long growth cycle. Use cavemen weapons (clubs, bow and arrows favoring poisoned arrows).  Genetically infused with knowing martial arts by instince (Magic/science can do anything!).  Their benefits to hamidon.  Can make babies all by themselves.  Their flaws, just animal people and not as dangerous compared to traditional Hamidon DE enemies.  So I guess these guys would be to the DE, what the Lost are to Rikti?  Or the transition from Arachnos soldiers to OH GOD TARANTULA WIDOWS.

Serpent swarms: A pile of snakes physically and mentally fused to together into a person shaped lump.  Sensing a trend here.

Also mention of "possibly infecting zombies, to make them walk around then explore in a mass of DE juice.  But that might be a bad idea due to cultural sensitivities".   But oh look, that's what the Embalmed Zombies do.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:48, Sun 09 Sept 2012.

Here all this time I'd assumed the DE was CoX's equivalent of the Weapons in FF7.  Crazy kill-everything-on-sight "defenders of the planet."

If it makes you feel better, that's what the DE call themselves and act like in game.  Plus all of us never did the contact arc in game that revealed "He was scientist" by his old girlfriend.  Who you rescue, but then gets kidnapped AGAIN because the GM didn't want her rescued clearly.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:47, Mon 10 Sept 2012.

Things you learn.  Realization that I've only actually gone through Vanguard plot arcs with Villains... So I missed the Hero side revelation 'oh wait Nemesis is responsible for the Rikti war' (Automatons of Freedom Phalanx frame job)  Despite earlier, 'both heroes and villains get these' missions suggestion it was Praetorians.

Neat. :) Yeah, I only just found out that Chris has not been to either the Shadow Shard stuff (Well.. MOST of it anyway), nor has he been to First Ward (and consequently, Night Ward). So I plan to yank him along with me to see them. They are great sights.

Well, I almost, but not quite made it through the Dark Astoria stuff despite playing nonstop since you guys left.  In the final minutes, the last mission was just too massive on too large a map, even with a horde of NPCs helping, including Lord Recluse.



Too much time spent with RL, cramming other things in, etc I guess.  Teaming up with anybody was out, as Tim triggered everything in the first contact so I missed everything with that one that wasn't a stop everything cutscene, so what odds would teaming with complete strangers have of me seeing anything?

I'll blame the bitterness on the game closing, I had plenty of time and could have pulled if off if I did it in the months since the announcement, I know I can only blame myself and I don't actually regret spending the time with you guys, even just to screw around.  Still...

Looks like Alloy couldn't stop the end of the world, after all.  Made worse because it means I couldn't save "Oh look, the ancient Goddess Source Of All Magic is Tall Angel Bard"

http://img845.imageshack.us/im...htielekkucropjpg.jpg

Some Archmage Alloy turned out to be...



Even if I did abort, the game would have just done it for me in thirty seconds.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:36, Sat 01 Dec 2012.

Bluuuuh.  I just blew over half my leftover Money Points to grab the Sci-Fi Moon base (tooltip it said I had coupons, but the dropdown said no coupons).  I go to the hideouts menu after buying it and oh look a "free claim" button... Oh look, I could have gotten the Tech Moonbase for FREE -.-  Thanks for telling me game.

So I grabbed one of the other four options, the Arcane Sanctum so at least now I have both science and magic bases.  Next time you both log on, press the hideouts button on the mini map compass to see if you can claim one for free from account age or something.

At least I have enough points leftover to buy one  normal price costume bundle... Blah, I would have had enough for two, maybe three.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Wed 05 Dec 2012.

doh!  thanks for the heads-up.

Will do.

Turns out literally TODAY (as of when we were playing) is when they finally made the account linking of old Cryptic accounts mandatory.  TIMING.

I guess that's what the bright red letters "Launcher maintenance" when I had my launcher open meant earlier.

I vaguely remember setting up my original CoX account made me want to punch something.  "You mistyped the capcha.  Now re-enter EVERYTHING you entered into this form."  Over and over and over.  WoW account re-setup made me want to punch Blizzard.  "Your account has been locked AGAIN because not playing for a few days is suspicious activity."  (So I was told by help guy on phone.)  Seems a common theme for MMOs these days to suck like the vacuum of space when it comes to account management.  WoW forced folks to switch to a blizzcom account at one point.  I have a vague recollection that when NCSoft bought out CoX, I had to make a new account.  Every time it was a torturously tedious process.

In my 4-5 years or so experience with database management, it's much better (and much cheaper) to leave well enough alone than to make massive unnecessary changes to a system.  Honestly...  MMO companies need to outsource their account management to folks who know what their doing, because the most clinical database manager would do a better job of not sucking the fun out of a game than career game makers.

Murphy, of course, defies attempts at proving his existence:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-sh...ttered-side-down.htm

Did some testing with Champions Travel powers to see what worked under water still.  (Sign if it works or not.  If you have the Icon of your travel power under your health bar with the other buffs.  Just tap activating it can highlight the toggle on your powers tray, but not provide the Buff Icon thus travel speed).

Note About Beast Stance:  Beast stance's beastial walking animation overides Super speed/Mach speed, and Acrobatics/Athletics animations.  Which means no Backflips from Acro/Athletics either.

Super Speed/Mach speed: Not actually Buggy.  Works under Water.  I just hadn't realized you need to Full Charge your Travel powers to get them to turn on under water (That and Max ground speed vs sorta buffed swim speed seemed slow at the time).  Don't take Super/Mach Speed unless you really want that power for itself though.

Athletics/Acrobatics:  Stays on,  Full Charge (Hold T until it finishes by itself) activation will turn it on if you are already under.  Just tapping it on will toggle it "on" without it working.

Flying/Fire Flight:  Plain old flying works just fine like Acrobatics.  Fire flight also works, though special note you won't start flying again when you hit the air till your fire effect comes back in 2 seconds.

Hover Disk/Earth flight:  DO work, Full charge can activate under water.  It switches the animation to swimming from your platform, but you are still faster.

Teleport: Works just fine, tap away as usual.

Swinging: Swinging makes you a faster swimmer what?!  It seems that for whatever reason, the jump buff of swinging translates to a swim speed boost.  You can't use the grapple under water though.

SuperJump/Rocket Jump: Makes swimming faster.  Alas, CO super jump is kinda lame compared to City's, and that's before you count the horror that is you have to press spacebar for every single jump.

Ice Slide: Worst. Power. Ever... But it still buffs swim speed and can be activated for swim buff under water.

Jet Boots/Pack:  Can't Turn on Under Water, because you can't charge them.  Remains active if you enter water with them on, but can't turn it on under water.  So bleh.  Poor Kingborg/Scott Scorcher.

Tunneling: I tried it out for completeness sake.  It stays on if you enter water with it on, but while it runs the animation if you are close enough to ground in water, you can't turn it on underwater.  I did however, learn that you can jump while tunneling.  Your invisible "body" jumps over benches and up ledges and stuff.

Wild.  Thanks for the heads-up.

How come? Are the boosted swimspeed powers faster than SS/Mach when under water?

It's more a case of "There is no raptor pack to save you when you need to get over things".  That and CO's Super speed has no stealth/aggro reduction like City.

SS still runs fast (while you are basically Ninja Run+ with CO's Acro/athletics, still a slower travel power than SS), but not as easy to get around with "Oh, hold on I need to find the stairs/ramp".

Just checking.  You and Hushio know that for Champions Double Experience, it's not automatic?  You have to talk to Witchcraft by the power house (they put here there in Millenium City), and it gives you a 4 hour buff.

Guess who didn't remember that himself.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:20, Sat 26 Jan 2013.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I meant to tell you that and got distracted!!! >.<

In loving memory of Haymaker, Jawbreaker, and all spectacular moments of Ragdolling street thugs well below your level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=desb0W6u80Y

Hehe

That was awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpkYXs3_fKY

Missing World Media "Animation Test" video from some bit back.  Watch the two minute video all the way to the end.  Seriously.

Fon!

Saw this linked in the SA City of heroes thread, so listing it on principle.  The City Of Heroes RPG quickplay pack pdf (free).

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/...-Quickplay-Pack?it=1

I have no idea of the quality of the system or anything, but a quick skim has revealed such things as "Fear Of Commitment" being counted as a disadvantage, as well as Miss Liberty having the disadvantage "Emotional Problem: Humorless".  Swan has the "Teenager" Disadvantage.


Every single stated out hero also has a Mediport Matrix Access as a listed power.  Mynx the Catgirl also has the power "Inhuman Shape".

Adding in several aspects that weren't in the game and that don't belong, I see.

I wonder if Paragon Studios had anything to do with the PDF. There are no credits to that end, just "Copywrite of EvilMcEvil Inc! All rights reserved!"

I have this hope/suspicion that if Paragon Studios HAD been involved, that the game would have rocked. And not included personality quirk "disadvantages"

I'm not playing the game, but since you have interests in both super heroes and short people, here's a heads up on the "not advertised" result of a lot of sliders being added  (wing sizes and tail sizes) In Champions Online.

"Leg Length has now been adjusted to cover a much, much, much greater variety of leg lengths. You can make actual midgets/goblins/imps/action figures (yes, min height and leg length does make you as small as an action figure.) now. This is glorious."

The Term action figure meaning things like the mini mechman summons in City.

Some examples a Goon made.
http://imgur.com/a/X6xE8

Ind Port:
Bell Medical Center

Talos:
Phoenix Medical Center

Well I did two chapters now. I'm taking a break, but hoping one of you could start up a Chapter 03. I'm actually pretty proud of myself actually beginning and ending two story archs. Why is that so hard for me in TFs? Anyway. I'd like to be a player in the CoX thread for a change.

batting around a couple ideas.  then rejecting them.  :p

The only idea I currently had is to run the comic story here. But while I like the idea of comicing our RPs, I prefer having the control that comes with being the one who writes the script. It means I can put as many or as little words as I want and put whatever scene whenever I want. I can't exactly go "I want to have a scene where the characters reminisce fond times at the movie theatre" every 2 posts. :\

On the other hand, I only ever sketched 1.8 pages for the CoX comic. Maybe RP is what it needs. And I can just edit according to what looks best / fits best.

Thoughts?

Having RP as a source of material for the comic sounds like a good idea.  If it helps, think of it as inspiration and not as a script.

Example from Attack on Titan:
Turns out the part in the anime where the main chars train does not even exist in the manga.  And there's plenty of bits in the manga that never wound up in the anime.  Script was changed around, order of events, etc.

Requested reminders.

Heroes
Alloy Archmage
Gadget Gun
???

Villains
Bladed Butler
Frigid Fixer
???

i.g.'s turn!

Mechwarior online SA thread has turned to comparing the bonkers "complicated systems for no reasons because Dev wants them", to Back when the "Statesman" Dev was running City of Heroes.

People are hoping things get better for MWO once they are allowed to do sane number tweaks like "How City vastly improved after Statesman dev left".

Huh.  Didn't know Statesman was a dev.  Or that he mucked things up.

From the CoT guys in the Something awful thread, RE: our collective 'stuck with human ears' issues in the past for designing robots and cat people.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Paragon_Chat

Just gonna leave this here...

Bump!  Tim's turn.  :)

unamee.com is selling city of heroes and city of villains shirts/hoodies again for a short while (90 hours left as of this post).

....HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Bigger fish! XD Nice one there, Nina

I know it's champions, but right now  Champions Online is are offering a FREE, Freeform character slot (which they normally charge $50 for LOL WTF) if you log in before December 1st 9 AM.

For reference, a freeform slot is a "you can always use whatever powers you want instead of premade archetypes, even when on F2P mode" slot.

You have to claim it from the inside game shop menu though.

Shame about all those "LOL we gated these behind the sub wall and called them 'new'" costume parts though.

thanks for the heads-up! : )

I did a quick checkover of my options, and my quick check (maybe I missed something) are only two things that really immediately effect reflective properties.

The first and most obvious, is "Reflection Quality".  Off/Low/High. But Tim said he had that on (dunno if high or not, but there isn't a big difference on Filler Fire when I set it to Low instead of High.).

However, the REAL big deal setting is "Lighting Quality".  Which also has a big impact on object details in general.  When I set lighting quality to "low" instead of high, Filler fire loses-
The ribbing on his tech gloves and boots become flat and featureless white.
The goggle lenses become entirely flat.
Crown loses detail.
All muscle tone is lost.

REFLECTIONS, are nerfed into the ground.  I'm still shiny, but it's "happens to be kinda shiny" instead of "Yeah, his entire body is made of shiny metal all right".

The "Lighting Quality" setting has a bigger effect on reflections, than Having low "reflection quality" instead of High.

Further suggesting it is the main culprit, The "Raise settings in character creator" popup tool tip says that it will turn up the LIGHTNING quality in the character creator.

Forthcoming will be screenshots of the difference of Filler fire with "Lighting Quality" Set to High, and Low.

Third possible culprit is Character Detail Distance acting up on you. That doesn't SEEM to effect my own character, but when it's turned way down, players all of 10 feet away from me become dark featureless blobs.  But you probbably would have noticed that. (The character detail distance slider has a much bigger effect on what other people look like, than the character texture quality slider)

TL:DR; Check your LIGHTING QUALITY option.  If it's set to Low, that has a huge impact on reflections, character detail in general, and it is what the "Raise settings in character creator" option cranks up to make things look better in the creator.

My hover disk is a good showcase, the underside has a mirrored sphere.

Reflections quality: High is "we literally show a reflection of the NPCs and most world object in it" (not players though).  It maintains an angle relative to my position when I spin the camera above the power house desk.

Low is "Shiny metal" with a generic static fake reflection for the area. it keeps showing the same static 'reflection' of the power house interiot no matter how I spin the camera.

Meanwhile with LIGHTING quality:  When it is set to low, the orb on the bottom of my hover disk becomes solid white. No semblance of reflection or even shiny object effects,  Just a token plastic sheen.

EDIT: Unrelated tip.

A Super great option in Champions/STO.  Go to the troubleshooting options (bottom of advanced options in video tab).

Make sure "Limit CPU usage when inactive" is on.  It switches the game to a more computer generous 10 frames per second mode when the game is not in focus (and on my old frankenputer, kept my computer from revving like an engine when I was checking other windows).
This message was last edited by the player at 14:09, Sun 29 Nov 2015.

Quoted from the SA thread, for if you want to actually give Champs a go for more than an hour gameplay wise as opposed to dress up wise (I admit, even I prefer 'make lots of whatever I want' part of Sub mode, more than I like 'Play through as just one character).

I would say for people building a freeform for the first time, the golden rules still apply:
• You need a slotted passive. Pick out what one you want first, because most of the rest of your shit will need to synergize with it.
• You need an AoE attack of some kind.
• You need a single-target DPS attack of some kind.
• You should get an energy unlock if there's one you can trigger reliably.
• You should get a form toggle if there's one you can trigger reliably. Do not rank your form toggle.
• Use whatever superstats support your powers and role best.
• Always max out the rank on your slotted passive.
• Never invest in ranks for your form toggle.
• Never invest in ranks for your energy builder.
• Never take Accelerated Metabolism on any power.

For more detail, use Bluhman's guides on Steam - he has been very active in the community since launch, he knows what to do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sha...etails/?id=180409692
This message was last edited by the player at 07:29, Sun 03 Jan 2016.

So why am I up at 8:30 posting?

Because the website **** ups on reactivating my Champions Sub on a Whim meant it spammed the $1 mini charge seven times (according to my bank info), thus tripping my fraud protection (and also locking a recent steam purchase payment as pending).

While I THINK I can use my card again after I went through the automated and pushed yes for "the last three transactions"... Well, it's Sunday so I can't contact a real person to double check everything is cleared up <.<

MMO payments from WoW to Final Fantasy to CO, basically everything always causes me some kind of bizzaro headache blah.

So yeah, Free Character Codes stuff.

Marvel Heroes (F2P Diablo with Marvel characters) is having a civil war promo where you get to redeem EITHER a code for free Captain America unlock, or free Ironman Unlock.

TEAMCAP
TEAMIRONMAN

Ironman and Captain America cost the same amount of funbucks to "Full unlock" (you can play nearly anyone for the first 10 levels).

Either way, Free Stuff is free.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:55, Fri 06 May 2016.

Anti-deletion post